Farm Transition Appreciation Day or FTADay is on January 9th, 2024. This day looks at farm transitions and how important it is to have a good plan when wanting to transition the farm from one generation or one owner to the next. It also sheds light on some success stories of Canadian farms transitioning smoothly and finds better ways to do it in the future. Nick Oakley is a business development lead with Farm Management Canada who talks about the importance of a day like FTADay.
“This is a fifth year coming up in January and it was started with a couple organizations getting together and just realizing important farm transition is and how far the industry still kind of needs to come in terms of farm transition. Anything that could potentially help farmers get on board with farm transition and really encourage that process to get started to continue to people to come back to the table and really focus on farm transition. It's a really complicated process and involves a bunch of different factors.”
Transitioning isn’t as easy as just handing the shop and tractor keys to the next person. Dedicated time and effort must be made the transfer day comes so that all factors go smoothly, and everyone walks away with a positive experience at the end. Transitions are never easy, with farms being in the family for generations it’s sometimes tough to pass it on to the next generation or to someone else. Oakley recommends speaking to professionals to help with the process.
“Family is so ingrained in farming life, and with that are a bunch of different emotions. There are homesteads we're talking about and passing on to the next generation and there's people coming in and looking for maybe their share and whatnot that the farmer cannot be able to undertake themselves. Look out for resources, look out for help with professionals in the area too.”
Farm Management Canada have been leaders in the farm transition scope and have expanded their resources to help producers in any way possible. They encourage business, producers, and anyone involved in the agriculture sector to engage with FTA Day on January 9th to help keep the conversations open surrounding the farm transition for now and for future generations.
This helps ensure that the next producer looking to move their farm to the next, can do so in a controlled, methodical type of way and in good timing. That way, as Oakley states, it’s a smooth transition that can never be done too early but can certainly be done too late.